I’m interviewing the Government Minister Peter Dunne today at 12 noon as part of University of Otago Vote Chat. What would you like me to ask him? Dunne is the MP for Ohariu, the leader of United Future, and the Minister of Revenue. Although some people think Dunne is rather middle-of-the-road, and therefore boring, his approach to political ideology, party building, and political alliances is actually very interesting. Ideologically, he’s either incredibly tolerant and open-minded, or he’s the ultimate pragmatist who will desperately alter his views and allies for a quick vote. Today I want to explore which version is correct. [Read more below]
Peter Dunne has had a fascinating political history. A member of the Labour Party from 1972 to 1994, Dunne became a Labour MP in 1984 and was a Minister first in the Fourth Labour Government and then in various subsequent governments of different political hues.
Dunne has been in numerous parties, and involved with numerous different politicians. He resigned from the Labour Party in 1994, and established a new party, Future New Zealand while in Parliament. He then merged that into the new United Party involving six other Labour and National MPs, in 1995. Dunne then merged the party with a whole variety of other minor parties – the Conservatives (formerly named the Right-of-Centre party), the Ethnic Minority Party, Advance New Zealand, the WIN Party (set up to fight the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants), the Outdoor Recreation Party, and the Future New Zealand party (a Christian party).
So obviously Dunne has been very good at aggregating a number of fledgling and disparate political forces. Although he’s also had a fair share of splits and inter-party divisions.
But he’s no anti-intellectual, nor is he non-ideological. In fact he’s got a MA in Political Science from the University of Canterbury. So there’s plenty to discuss in trying to get to the bottom of what Peter Dunne really believes.
As well as that, I’ll be asking some of the usual questions that I’ve been asking other MPs – about gay marriage, inequality, issues of ethnicity, drug reform, and alcohol use.
Peter Dunne will also be introducing Pete George – his new United Future candidate for Dunedin North. George is a very impressive local political activist and intellectual, and could well turn out to be the surprise success in this year’s Dunedin North campaign.
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If anyone has additional topics and specific questions that they want put to Peter Dunne, please let me know – or participate on the Twittersphere in realtime (see details below). Of course, I may not be able to use all the questions you suggest, but it’s helpful to get ideas from others and it’s useful to know what topics you find particularly interesting.
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The University of Otago Vote Chat takes place every week until the general election. The interviews occur in front of a public audience at the University of Otago Media Production studios, where the conversation is filmed for livestreaming on the internet and as a podcast for iTunes.
The intention is to make these political meetings rather different from the usual stage-managed and bland affairs that can happen during election campaigns. So there’ll be lots of challenging and quirky questions, and the MP won’t be allowed to revert to simply giving the usual well-rehearsed campaigning speech. The audience can help by heckling, cheering, or merely tweeting their reaction and questions to the Twitter feed – using the hashtag #OUVoteChat2011 – which will be projected up on the lecture theatre screen.
If you’re in Dunedin there is still the ability to come along and participate and/or watch – but seating is limited to about 45 or so – so turn up early. The Media Production Studio is on the 2nd floor of the Owheo Building, 133 Union Street East (Cnr of Union Street East and Forth Streets). You can see a map here:
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?q=133+union+street+east+dunedin&hl=en&sll=-41.244772,172.617188&sspn=37.305694,86.572266&vpsrc=0&t=m&z=16
If you want to watch the live-stream of the interviews, go to:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/its/mediaproduction/streaming/mpstudio.html
Eventually all the interviews will be available as podcasts to download from iTunes, but in the meantime you can also watch them on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/OUVoteChat
Some weeks there will be more than one politician. Future politicians include Bill English, Tau Henare, and Grant Robertson. To keep up with all the detail, there’s a Facebook “Vote Chat 2011” page here:
http://www.facebook.com/VoteChat2011
